The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having a plurality of casing parts and, more particularly, to a hinge structure for connecting the casing parts mechanically and electrically to each other.
Today, with the advance of miniaturization of electronic circuits, various kinds of electronic apparatuses including desktop calculators and portable radio apparatuses are available in sizes small enough to be put even in the pockets of clothings. However, the miniaturization reduces areas to be allocated to keys, display and so forth and thereby obstructs maneuverability. In order to solve this problem, the apparatus may be provided with a foldable configuration including a hinge structure, as proposed in various forms in the past. Specifically, the apparatus may be constituted by a plurality of casing parts hinged such that they can be unfolded to a size great enough to facilitate the manipulation.
The prerequisite with the above foldable apparatus is that the hinge sets up electrical connection between the plurality of casing parts. To meet this requirement, some hinge structures capable of electrically connecting the housing parts have been proposed. For example, to electrically connect circuit portions disposed in two casing parts, use may be made of a flexible printed circuit board wrapped around a pin included in a hinge portion, or a signal line, as taught in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 62-91867 by way of example. However, this kind of hinge structure, particularly one using a flexible printed circuit board, needs complicated assembling work and expertness and has only a limited assembling efficiency.
In light of the above, two casing parts may be directly connected by connectors. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-197447 discloses a connector structure applied to a laptop personal computer. The laptop personal computer is made up of a body and a flat panel type display unit. The body and display unit are each provided with the respective connector. The connectors are removably coupled to each other so as to directly connect the body and display unit mechanically and electrically. However, because this kind of structure is not intended to implement a hinge structure, it is difficult to use the structure as a hinge structure for rotatably connecting the body and display unit. Although such a connector structure may be so configured as to rotatably connect the body and display unit, it must support them mechanically. This brings about another problem in the mechanical strength aspect.
Hence, a flexible printed circuit board is essential with the hinge structure of the kind mechanically and electrically connecting the body and display unit. Therefore, the assembly involves a great number of steps and consumes time.